Document processing devices include printers, copiers, scanners and e-mail gateways. More recently, devices employing two or more of these functions are found in office environments. These devices are referred to as multifunction peripherals (MFPs) or multifunction devices (MFDs). As used herein, MFPs are understood to comprise printers, alone or in combination with other of the afore-noted functions. It is further understood that any suitable document processing device can be used.
Digital devices, such as computers, including MFPs, are increasingly networked to share data, documents or resources. The advent and growth of the global Internet provides digital devices with access to a wide array of digital content, including web pages for display on a browser and electronic image files that can be downloaded, displayed and even edited. If a user desires to print network content, they typically navigate to a site, such as via a web browser, a remote login or via a file transfer protocol (FTP). The user then downloads the content and saves it to their local device. Then, they may open an application that corresponds to a file type, such as a word processor, and send the document to a printer for printing.
If a user downloads multiple file types, they may have to use several applications to view and print them. By way of example, a user may download a document in Portable Document Format (PDF), save it to memory, and open it with ADOBE Reader to view and print. They may then download an image file, such as a JPEG, bitmap or GIF file and open it with a program such as PAINT for viewing and printing.